Rabbi Yehuda Finchas
Albert is a first responder. He is on call three times a week, ready to jump to the rescue and save people’s lives. He loves his volunteer work and has saved many lives over the years. Albert presented me with the following dilemma: “Rabbi, is there any obligation to rescue people who willingly enter into dangerous situations? Am I responsible to help people who act in a reckless fashion, given that they are not willing to help themselves? And what about Shabbat? I know I’m obligated to desecrate Shabbat to save someone’s life, but does this apply even when someone deliberately endangers themselves?”
Torah Sources
The source of the Torah obligation to take action to save another person’s endangered life is the pasuk, “You shall not stand idly by the blood of another (Vayikra 19:16).” So to rephrase Albert’s question in terms of the pasuk, the question becomes: Does this mitzva still apply when a person willingly endangers their life?
There is an additional source that one must act to save a fellow man’s endangered life. The Gemara (Sanhedrin 73a) reasons that if we are obligated to perform hashavat aveda – to return lost property to its rightful owner, all the more so we are obligated to “return” a fellow man’s most precious possession, namely his life itself.
Picking up on this second source, the Minhat Hinuch (237:1) argues that there is no obligation to save the life of a person who deliberately threatened his wellbeing by behaving in a reckless and dangerous manner. Since the halacha clearly states that one is not required to return lost property that was deliberately lost by its owner (HM 261:4), by extension one need not return the possession of life that was deliberately endangered by its “owner.”
Hacham Ovadia’s Ruling
Hacham Ovadia, zt”l, (Yabia Omer, OC 8:37) however, disagrees. He argues that there is a fundamental distinction between saving lost property and saving an endangered life. Whereas a person is the owner of his monetary possessions, he is not the “owner” of his life. While a person has the right to do as he pleases with his own money, he does not have the right to act recklessly and deliberately risk his life. As the Radbaz (Commentary to the Rambam, Sanhedrin 18:6) writes, “A person’s neshama it not his personal property, it’s the property of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as the pasuk states, ‘The nefashot belong to Me’ (Yehezkel 18:4).” Therefore, even when a person acts recklessly and disregards his own life – one remains fully responsible to the Divine owner and is still obligated to save him.
(Although we do not have the right to needlessly endanger our lives, we have explained elsewhere that it is sometimes permitted to entertain a small risk in order to obtain a meaningful positive outcome. For example, to donate a kidney or to undergo elective plastic surgery.)
Hacham Ovadia goes further, insisting that one even desecrate Shabbat to save the life of a person who has acted recklessly. This follows Maran Hida (Birke Yosef, OC 301:6), who writes, “It is obvious that we desecrate Shabbat even for someone who deliberately endangered their life.” They reject the ruling of Responsa Shevut Yaakov (1:16) that one may not desecrate Shabbat in such instances.
Hacham Ovadia’s ruling underscores how Judaism views every human life as precious and invaluable. “Whoever saves a single life is considered as if they saved an entire world (Sanhedrin 4:5).” “Guard yourself and exceedingly safeguard your soul (Devarim 4:9)” – do your utmost to preserve and protect human life (see Brachot 32b).
In light of the above, the answer to Albert’s question is that the mitzvah to save human life applies, even to someone willingly endangers their life, and even on Shabbat.
Rabbi Yehuda Finchas is a worldwide expert, lecturer, and author on Medical Halacha. He heads the Torat Habayit Medical Halacha Institute. His latest book is “Brain Death in Halacha and the Tower of Babel Syndrome.” To contact Rabbi Finchas, email rabbi@torathabayit.com.